Editor's Note: This title is only available at Marillion's web site.

Last year Marillion traveled to Oswestry, Wales to do the final mixing of their latest album, "Radiation." While in town, the boys worked out a deal with a local restaurant owner. In exchange for free eats during their stay, the band agreed to get up and play a couple songs for the locals before packing everything up and heading back home again. Word of this impromptu arrangement leaked out onto the Internet and before long the whole world knew about Oswestry and the upcoming Marillion show. Well, even though it didn't start out to be a 'show' per-se, the Oswestry event became bigger than life and turned into a SHOW! Two of them to be exact and the second one was laid out on tape, eventually becoming "Unplugged at the Walls." As the title suggests, this is an acoustic show. The band rehearsed for a week for the set, picking songs that either hadn't ever been played live before or hadn't ever been played in an acoustic format. The result is a jewel of a set list. The selection of tunes and the great sound quality make this a must-have for Marillion fans. "Unplugged at the Walls" starts with "Beautiful," a song from "Afraid of Sunlight." Marillion collectors have heard this one unplugged before. This arrangement, the first of many from "Afraid of Sunlight," is very close to the original. As a matter of fact, all but two of the songs from "A.O.S." are featured during the set. In my opinion "Afraid of Sunlight" was given short shrift when it hit the stands. Realizing that there were many reasons for this album to be left behind by the band, I was still enthusiastic at the resurrection of many of the cuts. "Cannibal Surf Babe," "King," and "Gespacho" are show stand-outs. New music (or at least new to the appreciative crowd amassed from around the world) played only a bit part in the acoustic show. The only two cuts to make it from "Radiation" were "Now She'll Never Know" and "Answering Machine." The latter track featuring a significant stylistic departure from the form that ended up on the album (the album version is quite the opposite of acoustic!). What I found most intriguing about "Unplugged at the Walls" was the tracks that were completely re-arranged for the show. "Alone in the Lap of Luxury" is a total reworking complete with a caviat to start with that suggested it was a late entry to the set list. With a completely new, kinda poppy, kinda reggae-ish beat and a completely different rhythm, I had to run this song past a few times before I decided that I liked it. Now however, the absolute unusualness of the track combined with the quirky delivery by a band unsure if they could pull it off has made "Alone . . ." my favorite track on the two-disc set. A close second however is the complete remake of "The Space."

"The Space" has always been one of my all-time favorite Marillion songs. It's the song that won me over to Steve Hogarth's arrival in the band on the first time I made it through the debut post-Fish album. The unplugged arrangement is strictly Blues and it really kicks ass! The depth of the song, lyrically and melodically remains as sharp as ever, but the whole sound is new and, while perhaps not improved, no less attractive. Finally, "Unplugged at the Walls" gives us a taste of Marillion doing something other than Marillion. Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" is delivered with perfection, as is The Beatles' "Black Bird." Steve Rothery is able to unleash a measured dose of electric guitar with a gritty, bluesy redo of "Abraham Martin and John." There's some buzzy feedback coming from Steve's amp as he starts this classic, but the noise only adds to the sensation of a real, live club show. You won't find this show in record stores, it's a Racket Records release and is only available through Marillion's website (www.marillion.com), but so far as I've seen "Unplugged at the Walls" is Racket's best release yet and it's well worth running out to the site and putting it in your shopping basket. This is a great disc by a great band. I recommend "Unplugged at the Walls" unequivocally.